A Mercenary's War

Chapter 39

Seeing Gao Yang pick up a 1911, Simon expressionlessly said, “If your choice is 1911, you can use my gun. Just like Bob, I also like custom-made guns, and reliable ones in particular.”

Simon opened his jacket up and took a gun out of the armpit holster. He turned her around and handed the gun handle to Gao Yang, and said again without any expression, “I'll give you a quick-change holster later. Heard you're good with shotguns? I'm also good with shotguns and I think we can have a match, so don’t die before you pay off the favor you owe.”

He took Simon's handgun and glanced at him. He couldn’t find any differences between Simon's handgun and his gun, but he knew better. Since Moses said his gun was better, it had to be.

Knowing that he also had a share in it, Tribo, without saying anything, grabbed an M4 and carried it on his back. Then he picked up a P226 pistol and happily said, “Never fired a pistol before. I’ll be mindful of using this. The recoil is smaller and easier to control. Bro Yang, I know you can’t carry one so how about I take one more M4 for you?”

Gao Yang picked up a shotgun and smiled, “With her, it’ll be enough. Let me warn you not to take too much, it’ll affect our movement."

Gao Yang’s shotgun model was a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, the gun could be regarded as the most common type of shotgun since the US military and police forces back in the day used to use this shotgun model. There were seven rounds per magazine, with an addition of eight rounds in a shot in the barrel that could basically deal with every situation. Shotguns had to be used in a close or super-close range. If the eight bullets couldn’t handle the enemy, that could only mean that there were too many enemies. They’d be dead if they ran into a Gatling machine gun.

Gao Yang and Hare armed themselves. Grolev held onto his GPMG and just stood there, staring blankly. Simon glanced at him and said, “Are you not going to choose a weapon?”

Grolev shook his head and said, “Nope, I would rather take an extra drum. I don’t like M4s and I'm not good with pistols. Furthermore, until the moment I need to use one, I'm sure I’d be gone already.”

Simon didn’t say anymore and just nonchalantly went to the side. He took a lot of things from a cabinet near the cockpit. He then came back to Gao Yang, and threw some stuff, and said, “Three pieces of body armor. These are very light, less than three kilograms. With the United States Class Three standard, they can block any pistol bullets. Oh, by the way, these are made in China, the world's best and cheapest body armor, oh and here, there are two other operation vests as well as two to three D bags and quick-pull handgun holsters. You guys will definitely need it.”

Although these things that Simon had brought weren’t weapons, they were similar in importance when compared with the importance of weapons for Gao Yang. Having a lot of things hanging on the body and rocking about was very really uncomfortable. With these things, moving would be more convenient and ideal. More importantly, it warranted one more safety mechanism.

Gao Yang and Hare put on the bulletproof vests, then they put on the combat vest on top of the bulletproof vest. After that, they fastened the quick-pull gun holster firmly onto themselves. Even Grolev also unloaded everything off himself and put on a bulletproof vest, since safety was always good, even if it was heavier by a few kilograms, it was worth it.

After weaving and wearing everything, Gao Yang and Hare began loading things onto their bodies, placing their magazines in suitable compartments. With a combat vest, the magazines were much easier to place and grab.

While Gao Yang and Tribo were busy, no one else was idle. The ten magazines from the M1A that Bob gave Gao Yang were all fully loaded. Five of them had hand-forged rounds [1] and the remaining five were handpicked. Ten magazines in total to add up to a full two hundred bullet rounds. If they were only used for highly accurate shooting tactics, it would be enough for him to participate in a protracted war.

There were a lot of M1A bullets from Bob’s weapon, but Gao Yang did not take more; ten to twenty rounds of magazine was enough for him. Since he was afraid of encountering melee range combat, he deliberately took some more shotguns loaded with sixty 00 type buckshot shells. Fortunately, the buckshots were not heavy, they just took up a lot of space.

Gao Yang took four more pistol magazines in addition to the shotgun. Counting the magazine in the gun as well, that amounted to thirty-five pistol rounds in total. All dumdum[2].

Gao Yang felt that he wasn’t going to face adversaries wearing bulletproof vests and thus expanding bullets with better knockback effects became his first choice. Yet he didn’t take too much. Both Grolev and him thought that if they needed a pistol for self-defense, it wouldn’t take that many shots. If many bullets were needed, he’d be chopped to dead alive.

Morgan seemed to be very satisfied with the electronic appliances. He changed the night-vision scope’s (NVD) batteries on Yang’s rifle. Then there’d be “light” if and when Gao Yang needed it. In addition, he also changed for the NVD on the helmet that Gao Yang picked up. This way, it would really come in handy for night assaults.

When Gao Yang was resupplying himself, he was still wondering if he needed that much ammo. On the other hand, when Tribo took them, he would stuff whenever he could without considering the overall weight at all. His items: twenty M4 mags and half a three D bag [3] was filled. Pistol magazines too. No matter the type of bullet, Tribo swept Moses’ entire inventory clean: twenty magazines into the bag, then, thinking that the bag still had some space, another two packs of 5.56 mm bullets split into two were also thrown into it. The Remington M700’s hundred plus 7.62 mm NATO rounds were put into a separate layer in the bag after that. Without the gun’s weight, just the ammo and magazines amounted to about twenty kilograms.

With Tribo’s physique, he was entitled to bring stuff this way; since he could carry as many heavy stuff as he wanted to. It was fortunate that the backpacks Simon and the guys used were all top-quality or else they wouldn’t be able to hold everything.

After Yang packed his stuff and was about ready, with his stuff hanging like an awesome Christmas tree, he still felt something was missing. He thought carefully and patted his own head. He asked Bob to get the hunting knife from the plane crash as his blade had a sheathe now. Notwithstanding its crudeness and shoddiness, it’s secure to hang onto the body.

It’s cumbersome through narration, but the trio took no more than ten minutes and they were geared to the teeth. Gao Yang was about to leave after he felt that he’d checked everything and nothing was left out. Morgan called him over once again.

After a long sigh, Morgan took out his satellite phone and charger, placed them in Gao Yang’s hands, and spoke as his voice sank. “I not only owe you a favor, but also money. Perhaps you are the creditor whom I want to see the most. Remember, I’ll be waiting for your phone call. I’ll welcome you and pay off my debt.”

Chapter Notes:

Translator’s note(s):

Hand-forged rounds are usually those that are melted down and reforged into ammo with gunpowder and other necessary materials